Only Georgyanna, the crown prince, and half a dozen of the males remained.
One glance in my direction, and the crown prince’s easy smile vanished. He cut through the group, striding toward me as his affinity rose, his aura so strong that it threatened to swallow me.
“What happened?” he asked when he reached me.
The door to the balcony opened, and Lord Waterline stumbled in, that dopey expression still painting his features. A ring of ice surrounded his burned wrist, his second affinity—a water element—helping his wound.
The crown prince stilled, and the air around him seemed to freeze. “What did he do?”
Each word came out as though it took actual concentration for him to speak. All of his energy had fixated on Lord Waterline, who was now casually ambling back to the wine table while everyone else carried on behind us, entirely oblivious to the prince’s rage.
“Nothing,” I replied as I wrapped my arms around myself and rubbed my hands on my biceps. “I got away. He wasn’t able to do anything thanks to a move Sandus taught me and a little help from my fire affinity and Shield.”
A thundercloud converged on Prince Norivun’s face, his eyes darkening until they looked like a raging storm. “Did he attack you?”
“Yes, and he tried to use his seduction affinity on me.” I cast a glance toward the male. Strangely, Georgyanna had joined him at the table. She was whispering to him again, and I could have sworn that Lord Waterline physically responded, his body loosening.
When she spun away, the young lord shook his head, then brought a palm to his forehead before glancing behind him. Genuine confusion covered his face, and in that moment, I knew.
Despite him being an absolute annoyance at dinner, Lord Waterline hadn’t purposefully attacked me on the balcony. Lady Endalaver had manipulated him to do it, and from the looks of it, he didn’t even realize what he’d just done.
Blessed Mother. She’s truly evil.
But before I could tell the prince what I’d witnessed, a ferocious snarl tore from his mouth, and Prince Norivun was striding away.
“My prince?”
But he flew forward, not responding, as his entire demeanor shifted until he was death on wings.
His powerful affinity rose with each step he took, and with a horrifying understanding, I knew that the prince was going to kill my date.
CHAPTER 15
“Wait, it’s not him!” I sprinted until I stood in front of the prince, then pushed him with everything I had before anyone could notice his response. “Stop!”
“I’m going to kill him.” Norivun’s chest rose and fell rapidly, and the aura around him crackled with malice.
I planted myself to the floor. “You can’t kill him.”
His eyes darkened to a frosty blue. “No? Then you don’t know what I’m capable of.” He tried to sidestep me, but I moved just as fast.
“Prince Norivun, please listen to me.”
“Ilara. Move.” Murder had painted itself upon his features, and I knew if I didn’t think of something immediately, he was going to murder Lord Waterline. And even though the lord was slimy and a cad, he wasn’t an abuser, and he wasn’t to blame for what had happened on the balcony. Georgyanna was.
The prince’s air affinity surged around me, lifting me from the ground and gusting me to the side.
“My prince!” I called upon my own magic and burst through his. Gritting my teeth, I wrenched a huge gust of air from my gut that propelled both of us through the doors and out onto the balcony just as the first fairy attending the dinner glanced in our direction.
Outside, the crown prince snarled his irritation as he fixated his attention on the dining room once more. Before I’d even caught my breath, he was swinging the door open and about to return inside.
I spun him toward me at the last second and wrapped a hand around his neck. I plastered myself to his frame and then did the only thing I could think of.
I slammed my lips to his.
The second our lips made contact, his entire body stopped. The prince just stilled, as though frozen in time.
My tongue darted out as his taste flooded my mouth. I curled my hands around his neck as my heart pounded with the feel of him against me.
A single groan came from the prince as he crushed me to him. His arms wrapped around my waist, his grip strong and powerful as his pounding aura coiled around me.
A rush of his air elemental affinity whooshed, and then we were on the other side of the balcony, flying on his wind until we were hidden in one of the deep alcoves as shadows embraced us.
I gasped at his absolute power.
Growling, the prince crushed his lips to mine again as his hands slid down to cup my backside. He hoisted me up, plastering me against his broad chest as a snarl worked through his lips.
I moaned, unable to help it as heat spiraled through me. The male was a sorcerer with his tongue. And his scent. His taste. Mother Below, but once again, I wanted him.
“Ilara,” he groaned, the sound guttural and barely fae.
His hands were everywhere, up my body, in my hair, cupping my breasts, feeling the curve of my backside.
Desire pooled between my legs, and his nostrils flared as a satisfied-sounding purr came next.
“You’re mine,” he said on a low growl.
That possessive declaration left his lips, and for the first time, I wondered if it wasn’t entirely about owning my power, but then my focus became the taste of his mouth and the strength of his hands. Lust consumed me so completely that all of my thoughts fled.
Chilled air kissed my skin as my nipples peaked in the frosty air. The prince had me against a wall, my dress entirely ridden up with both of my legs hooked around his waist, and he’d somehow freed one of my breasts and was feasting upon my nipple like a dying male.
And Mother . . . did the male know how to use his tongue.
He growled again when I hissed as a thousand nerve endings came to life under his masterful touch, but when he bit my nipple hard enough for my head to clear, I realized what we were doing, and Mother Below, I was once again practically fucking the murderer of my family.
“Prince Norivun!” I tried to wrench myself away from him even though my core throbbed. “Prince Norivun,” I gasped again, then clawed at his chest.
But he only growled more, then cupped my rear with his other hand and squeezed my soft flesh.
“Oh gods.” My head tilted back when one of his fingers curved forward to tickle my clit. A shockwave of rapture spiraled through me.
“So wet,” he groaned as his finger pulled back just enough to find my damp entrance. He swept my underthings to the side, and when his thick finger began to enter me, my entire body seized.
Yes. Gods, yes.
My eyes flew open.
No, what am I doing?
“You must stop.” I pounded on his back. Shadows dipped his expression into such vicious beauty that, for a moment, I couldn’t speak. My chest rose and fell so rapidly as my legs quivered around him.